Antares : Cygnus NG-14 : October 3, 2020 (01:16 UTC)

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Cygnus NG-14 before unberthing from the Unity module’s Earth-facing port:

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Northrop Grumman’s NG-14 Cygnus Spacecraft Completes Primary Mission to the International Space Station

DULLES, Va. – Jan. 6, 2021 – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) announced today that the company has completed the first phase of its 14th cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Mission (CRS-2) contract. Cygnus was released by the station’s robotic arm at 10:11 a.m. ET, carrying more than 4,000 pounds of disposable cargo and will remain in orbit for approximately two weeks for the secondary phase of its mission.

“For more than six years, Northrop Grumman has supported human spaceflight by delivering critical cargo to astronauts aboard the International Space Station and acting as a host to a number of science experiments and technology demonstrations,” said Frank DeMauro, vice president and general manager, tactical space systems, Northrop Grumman. “Our Cygnus spacecraft will once again demonstrate the capabilities and flexibility we offer our customers by conducting critical experiments during our secondary mission phase.”

Cygnus’ secondary mission includes conducting NASA’s Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiment V (Saffire-V) experiment, which helps researchers understand how fire behaves in microgravity, and hosting the SharkSat payload.

SharkSat is a Northrop Grumman-developed prototype payload mounted to the Cygnus spacecraft that will provide data about the performance of key technologies in a space environment for future missions. SharkSat is driving rapid innovation in technology development and growing Northrop Grumman’s next generation of technical leaders.

The “S.S. Kalpana Chawla”, launched Oct. 2 aboard Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket, carrying nearly 8,000 pounds (approximately 3,600 kg) of scientific research, supplies and equipment to astronauts living on the station. The vehicle has been docked with the orbiting laboratory since Oct. 5.

Northrop Grumman solves the toughest problems in space, aeronautics, defense and cyberspace to meet the ever evolving needs of our customers worldwide. Our 90,000 employees define possible every day using science, technology and engineering to create and deliver advanced systems, products and services.

https://news.northropgrumman.com/news/releases/northrop-grummans-ng-14-cygnus-spacecraft-completes-primary-mission-to-the-international-space-station

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https://twitter.com/ZARM_de/status/1347571388605935621

2021/01/08 Hot surprise on the space transporter CYGNUS

The 25 scientists of the project "SAFFIRE V" look back on the flight of Cygnus NG-14 with mixed feelings. The reason: One of the two experiments on board the space transporter could not be started as planned. The other, functioning experiment, however, caused a surprise. Also involved were two scientists from the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen.

The start of the experiments on Cygnus NG-14 was awaited with great excitement, because the scientists hoped to gain new insights into fire safety on board of spacecrafts. This was the fifth time that the CYGNUS capsule was used for these kind of experiments, whose actual purpose is to deliver supplies and new experiment setups to the International Space Station ISS and then burn up in the Earth's atmosphere on its way back. After the CYGNUS undocked from the ISS on Jan. 6, 2021, the SAFFIRE V experiments were ready for ignition at 3:30 a.m. (CET) on Jan. 7. In SAFFIRE V an acrylic board will be ignited in such a way that the flame is spread "upstream" or “downstream” across the material by an air flow with Normoxic atmosphere (700 millibars, 26.5% oxygen as in future exploration missions). Unfortunately, the first of the two experiments ("downstream") could not be ignited due to a technical problem. In the second experiment, on the other hand, in which the flame was supposed to spread against the flow, something unexpected happened: the three thermocouples attached to the opposite end of the ignition point were not supposed to show any significant temperature increase during the 6-minute burning period. However, the measurements of one of the thermocouples suddenly increased after only three minutes and reached a peak value of 185° C.

The scientists involved will now have to puzzle for about a week until they can obtain the images from the experiments and figure out what was responsible for this unexpected temperature rise. An initial evaluation based on the measurement data of the flame radiation values, the exhaust gas temperatures, the O2, CO, CO2 concentrations as well as the air humidity values has already begun.

The SAFFIRE V project is financed by NASA.


https://www.zarm.uni-bremen.de/en/press/single-view/article/hot-surprise-on-the-space-transporter-cygnus.html

[gongora]

Is this for Cygnus?

210832Z JAN 21
HYDROPAC 277/21(83).
SOUTH PACIFIC.
DNC 06.
1. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS, SPACE DEBRIS
   261930Z TO 262130Z JAN
   IN AREA BOUND BY
   50-00S 130-00W, 30-30S 130-00W,
   30-30S 160-00W, 50-00S 160-00W.
2. CANCEL THIS MSG 262230Z JAN 21.

[eeergo]

2021/01/08 Hot surprise on the space transporter CYGNUS

The 25 scientists of the project "SAFFIRE V" look back on the flight of Cygnus NG-14 with mixed feelings. The reason: One of the two experiments on board the space transporter could not be started as planned. The other, functioning experiment, however, caused a surprise. Also involved were two scientists from the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen.

The start of the experiments on Cygnus NG-14 was awaited with great excitement, because the scientists hoped to gain new insights into fire safety on board of spacecrafts. This was the fifth time that the CYGNUS capsule was used for these kind of experiments, whose actual purpose is to deliver supplies and new experiment setups to the International Space Station ISS and then burn up in the Earth's atmosphere on its way back. After the CYGNUS undocked from the ISS on Jan. 6, 2021, the SAFFIRE V experiments were ready for ignition at 3:30 a.m. (CET) on Jan. 7. In SAFFIRE V an acrylic board will be ignited in such a way that the flame is spread "upstream" or “downstream” across the material by an air flow with Normoxic atmosphere (700 millibars, 26.5% oxygen as in future exploration missions). Unfortunately, the first of the two experiments ("downstream") could not be ignited due to a technical problem. In the second experiment, on the other hand, in which the flame was supposed to spread against the flow, something unexpected happened: the three thermocouples attached to the opposite end of the ignition point were not supposed to show any significant temperature increase during the 6-minute burning period. However, the measurements of one of the thermocouples suddenly increased after only three minutes and reached a peak value of 185° C.

The scientists involved will now have to puzzle for about a week until they can obtain the images from the experiments and figure out what was responsible for this unexpected temperature rise. An initial evaluation based on the measurement data of the flame radiation values, the exhaust gas temperatures, the O2, CO, CO2 concentrations as well as the air humidity values has already begun.

The SAFFIRE V project is financed by NASA.
https://www.zarm.uni-bremen.de/en/press/single-view/article/hot-surprise-on-the-space-transporter-cygnus.html

https://twitter.com/NASAArtemis/status/1352269806825828358

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https://twitter.com/northropgrumman/status/1354177588386816002

Update: The NG-14 Cygnus spacecraft completed its mission on Jan. 26 at 3:23 p.m. EST.

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https://twitter.com/NASA_Wallops/status/1354181462870929413